The Healer
by thelittleturtleduck
Summary: Kya has been sneaking off the island at night and venturing off to Republic City. Aang and Katara follow her with every intention of giving her a punishment for her disobedience, but what if it's them that end up in trouble instead of their daughter?


A/n: I'm making it a bad habit to write really long oneshots. Anyway, this is just a headcanon I have had involving Kya for awhile now. Bryan and Mike spoke of how she is a lot like Aang and is more into healing, so I just decided to write this scenario. This oneshot has just about everything in it from family, to romance, mixed in with a little spice of humor. I hope you enjoy it! Please review! God bless!

Disclaimer: I don't own "Avatar: The Last Airbender" or "Legend of Korra".

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A chilling breeze whistled through the trees and creeped its way through the courtyard of the Air Temple. Metal chimes that hung on the edge of the roof tolled merrily, though in the dark of the night they sounded eery.

Soft footsteps, you would have to strain to hear, padded on the concrete of the foundation. A girl of about fifteen years of age looked nervously back and forth with hesitant cerulean eyes, hair the color of the brown leaves that currently swirled on the gentle breeze. She was wrapped in a dark cloak that clung to her slender shoulders, but under she was wearing what appeared to be Water Tribe styled robes, dark blues and light aquas overlapped in the material.

She lay her back flat against a wall as an Air Acolyte made their way across the courtyard to the kitchen. Her breathing became heavy at the thought of being caught and turned into her now sleeping parents. But the woman wrapped in robes the color of autumn did not see the young girl hiding fearfully in the shadows.

When the kitchen door opened and closed, Kya allowed herself a sigh of relief as she began to make her way in the direction of the meditation pavillion, and then she would soon be down to the docks.

The wind caused several trees to ruffle and the late night fugitive could hear the soft snores of the lemurs as they slumbered beneath the light of the full moon. She nearly jumped from her skin several times when a slight noise would elicite from a small bush, but then she would see that it had just been the breeze causing the branches to move.

She finally reached the meditation pavillion, Kya moving to hide behind one of the poles that attached itself to the wooden roof. She paused to catch her breath for a moment, her heart still racing from hearing a slight noise in the darkened woods.

"What are you doing?"

With a sharp intake of breath, the young waterbender turned and was met face to face with her two younger brothers standing on the steps leading up to the base of the pavillion. Bumi's hair was wild and windblown, his green tunic that wrapped tightly around his torso showed tell tale signs of dirt and struggle. Tenzin stood beside his older brother, his bald head turning every which way in fear of being caught outside at this time of night. He nervously pulled on his airbending training outfit as Bumi looked expectedly at his older sister.

"I'm going out."

"Ah," Bumi remarked, a smirk finding its way on to his tanned features, the thirteen year old satisfied that he had caught his sister doing something that could get her in trouble, "Do mom and dad know you are going out?"

"Yes.

"Ha," Bumi pointed a finger at her, his features full of pride, "Then you wouldn't mind if I asked them, right?"

Kya groaned in frustration at her younger brother's ability to make everything ten times worse than it had to be, "Bumi," She sighed deeply, looking pleadingly at him with big, bright eyes, "Please, dont."

Bumi's brows rose, his eyes casting nonchalantly down to his nails as he proposed his price, "I won't. You just have to cover my chores for the rest of the week."

His older sister groaned again, knowing that Bumi was in charge of cleaning the Bison stalls the whole week, "Fine."

The wild child of the bunch promptly bumped his shoulders with the slender ten year old beside him, still looking around nervously, " 'Zin, you got anything you want her to do? This is a fine oppurtunity. The Little Princess could lose her near perfect reputation."

Tenzin shook his head, looking back at their housing unit where their parents were supposedly asleep, "She doesn't have to do anything,  
we all just need to go back inside and go to sleep like mother and father told us to."

Bumi rolled his eyes, wrapping a strong arm around his brother's shoulders and pulling him down where he could rub his bald head roughly, "Oh cueball, live life on the edge for once."

A tolling of a bell broke them all from the moment, heads turning to their father's statue standing proudly in the middle of Yue Bay. It was midnight.

"I really have to go," Kya sprinted to the side of the pavillion, not even bothering to use the steps and swiftly threw her body over the wooden railing, "Bumi, do not tell. Got it? I'll take over your chores in the morning."

"Technically, it is the morning."

The young waterbender shook her head at her younger brother's comment, waving to the two of them as she ran down to the docks, "Whatever."

When she reached the barren concrete dock that stretched into the darkened bay, Kya had to spare a small smile at the sight. She could feel the energy coursing through her bones as she walked closer and closer to the water that she could manipulate. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, the young girl waded her way waist deep into the water and circled a bubble over her head, letting the water consume her and guide her to Republic City.

From the Sky Bison stables, two parents readied themselves for a trip into the city.

"I always expected something like this from Bumi," Aang muttered under his breath as he checked Appa's reigns, making sure they were tied tightly to the Air Bison's horns, "But Kya just isn't one to do this."

Katara shrugged her shoulders from where she sat on top of Appa's saddle, elbows resting on the side as she gazed at her husband clothed in his usual airbending robes, "She's fifteen years old, Aang. She's probably met a boy or something."

"How can this not be freaking you out?"

Katara's brows raised, "Because we are going to get her and once she is back on the island, she'll be lucky to ever get to leave it again."

The airbender propelled himself onto the furry bison's head, the animal giving an affectionate grunt as his master gently rubbed the fur on his forehead, "Come on, boy. We need to be able to see her when she surfaces. Yip Yip!"

The Sky Bison gave a groan of understanding, his legs floating off the ground as he left the confines of the stable and raised his weight into the sky. Within moments they were flying over the Bay.

Katara sat up on the saddle, a cloak wrapped around her shoulders at the cool air caused her to shiver slightly though she was use to a colder climate. Her eyes cast downwards at the rippling waves of the body of water below them, her body could feel the surge of energy as the full moon shone on the black abiss, painting shadows across the water.

"Aang," The man in question turned to his wife now, his face worried as well as her's, "You don't think the reason Kya feels the need to sneak off is because we're bad parents, right?"

The Avatar's brows pulled together tightly, his stormy eyes looking up into her cerulean ones, "What does any of this have to do with our parenting, Katara?"

"Maybe she feels like we coddle her, and don't let her do what she wants. When we were her age, we were travelling the world, Aang. You don't think that she feels she deserves some of that too, right?"

Her husband's lips pursed as he allowed a gentle gust of wind blow him up and then down into the saddle right next to the worried mother. Without even noticing it, their hands found each other as the breeze caused their robes to billow around them.

"Well," The Avatar said after a moment, his free hand rubbing nervously against the top of his blue head where a blue arrow was tattoed along the pale expanse of skin, "I don't know. Kya always has been more of a free spirit, and maybe she does feel like we put too many restrictions on her life. Maybe she feels like if she asked us to go out, we would say no before she even had a chance to explain where she was going."

Katara's slender shoulders shrugged, "Or maybe if it's a boy she's going to see, she just doesn't want to bring him home to meet us. She knows we would never let her date unless we knew the young man that was pursuing her."

"Now," Aang chuckled a bit, "Why in the world would she be scared of a boy meeting us? I consider us to be quite reasonable people."

"Aang," His wife said slowly, a small smile appearing on her distraught features, "You're the Avatar."

"So?"

"So," Katara continued patting his tattoed hand and capturing it between her warm palms, "Don't you think that would be a little intimidating?"

"But I'm the cool dad!"

The master waterbender laughed at the defiant look on her husband's features, a hand releasing his and resting gently on the soft stubble on his chin, "Of course you are, sweetie," Her blue eyes looked into his accusingly, "But I think if Kya brought a boy home and told you he was her boyfriend, she may send you into the Avatar State."

Aang shook his head slowly in denial, "That is not true."

Katara raised one of her eyebrows in challenge, "You know it's true."

The salty air between them was silent as Aang sighed deeply, his head nodding, "Ok, I admit, I wouldn't be the most understanding person when it came to her dating."

"You started dating at twelve."

"Katara," Aang moaned in exasperation as his wife gave him a cheeky grin in return, the city lights becoming brighter as they approached the city, "That's different."

"Why? Because she's a girl?"

"No," The Avatar shook his head, squeezing his wife's hand as Appa began his descent, "Not because she's a girl."

"Because she's your little girl?"

Aang looked up at his wife, her voice soft and understanding as he gave a meek nod of his head, ashamed of how overprotective he was truly being.

"I feel like Sokka."

Katara chuckled lightly at that, remembering how strict her brother had been when she was dating Aang, "Well that's not good, Mr. Avatar."

Aang gave her a sideways glance, Appa jostling them slightly as he landed on the green grass of a lonely park a few blocks down from the docks.

"There's nothing wrong with being protective of her," She squeezed his fingers in understanding, blue eyes looking right into his stormy one's that were fogged with a bit of emotional confusion, "But Aang, she is a fifteen year old girl. She's a year away from being considered a woman. Kya has always taken after you, both of you being so similar in deposition. You can trust her because you know you raised her well enough to know the difference between right and wrong and to be a good judge of character."

The Avatar's gaze did not leave his wife's as he nodded slowly. Leaning forward, the man pressed a gentle kiss to her lips, smiling as they seperated.

"I know that."

Katara nodded and began to stand when Aang stopped her, sliding his strong arms behind her back and underneath her knees, airbending both him and his wife off the saddle and on to the ground.

"I don't think I will ever get use to that."

Aang chuckled as she wrapped her arms around his neck, hands releasing his hold on her only to wrap his arms in return around her slender waist, "It seems like we both have somethings we need to start getting use to."

They released their hold on each other, but the Avatar kept a strong arm around his wife's waist. The man instructed his bison to stay put and to only leave if he was called for. The couple walked down the nearly empty sidewalks of the city, the lights still glowing brightly even in the dark of the night.

They arrived at the docks just in time to see their daughter surface away from the port where the ships rested. The young waterbender quickly manipulated the water from her cloak and robes, allowing it to fall on the small patch of grass beneath her feet, the ground gladly soaking up the moisture.

The teenager looked around her, a few people walking up and down the streets to their home or night shift. The girl's cerulean eyes did not meet those of the two people hiding in the shadows beneath a lamp post, watching her every move as she took off down the street at a fast pace.

"Aang," Katara whispered as they followed their daughter closely from behind, pressing their bodies into dark alleys every time she turned to see if anyone was following her, "Promise me that if it is a boy she is meeting up with, you won't freak out."

"I promise."

"Also," His wife remarked as their daughter turned yet another corner at an intersection, her pace quickening as she neared her destination, "We will not punish her right away, we need to go home and discuss the type of punishment that follows sneaking off the island. I'm sure Bumi will be getting the same punishment soon enough."

"Sounds fair."

Katara nodded, as they stopped at the corner. Kya was standing in front of a white building, fixing her hair that she had allowed to flow down her shoulders instead of tying it back in her usual braid.

"Ha, I knew she was going on a date!"

Aang's eyes went wide as he tried desperately to peer over his wife's head around the corner, "Where is he? Who is it?"

The two were getting strange stares from the few people walking the sidewalks. The Avatar and his wife were clinging to a wall and peering around from behind it. The pedastrians shook their head knowing that whenever they told their collegues at work the next day that they had witnessed the site, they would not believe them.

Katara's brows furrowed in confusion as a young man in a physicians coat exited the building and greeted Kya, her daughter waving warmly back at the guy who had to be at least ten years her senior.

"Katara, you know what you said about not freaking out?"

"Sh."

The waterbending master watched as the man in the coat and her daughter talked animatedly as they walked up the steps and into the building.

Katara slowly revealed herself from the corner, the Avatar following not far behind with a small pout on his face. His wife didn't notice and instead walked briskly over to building, passing the front completely and walking along the side that led into a dark alley.

She gestured for her husband to follow, and he was soon standing beside her beneath a window high on the wall, the darkened alley a eery backdrop in the shades of the night.

"Did you see how old he was?"

"Aang," Katara murmured, ignoring him as she tried jumping to grab on to the ledge of the window, her fingers falling a few breaths too short, "Get down."

"What?"

His wife pointed to the damp ground where he could see little night bugs crawling along the cool concrete, "Get on your hands and knees so I can see."

The Avatar looked at her as if she were crazy, a hand going up to rub against the back of his neck unsurely, "Uh, Katara, I don't really know about this."

"Do you want to know what's going on with Kya?"

"Of course."

Her eyes turned to him pleading, "Than please give me a lift so I can tell you what's going on."

Aang sighed in exasperation, his wife untying the cloak on her shoulders to reveal her deep blue robes, "Here," She handed him the dark material, "It should be able to cover your knees so you don't get any dirt on your robes. I don't feel like rubbing the stains out of that orange fabric again, it takes forever."

Her husband took the cloak and wrapped it around his own shoulders, the cloth barely going down to his knees, meant to accomdate the figure of his petite wife. He put the hood over his head as well.

"If Kya looks out here," He muttered to her as he obeyed and got down on his hands and knees, allowing his wife to step on to his back, "I'm pretending to be a criminal. You can be the nosy parent in this situation."

"Sh," His wife forcefully whispered as she gained her balance on the sloped line of her husband's spine, slippered feet careful not to put too much weight on him. She was able to press herself against the side of the wall, face peering into a plain white room with a chair off to one side and a mat on the floor.

Aang was glancing nervously around as he began to realize how suspicious they looked. The Avatar and his wife were in the more residential part of the city where people could be awake at this time of night, a few windows lit in the building next to them.

Katara watched as an old man with a thin patch of silver hair opened the door and walked into the room, the metal of the hinges creaking as he closed it behind him. He wore Earth Kingdom styled clothes with deep greens and browns mixing into the style of his tunic. The waterbender could see that the man had a bloody bandage wrapped around his upper arm, a pained grimace evident on his wrinkled features.

Right when the man was beginning to sit, the door opened again and in walked her daughter. The girl now had her hair tied back in an unusually tight bun, a physicians coat now resting on her shoulders in place of the black cloak she had been wearing earlier. The white of the fabric nearly covered the colors of her Water Tribe robes beneath it, but her mother could still see the familiar pattern of one of her training robes.

"Hello," Kya remarked cheerfully, her hands holding on to a small jug of water as she gently closed the door behind her, a bright smile on her features, "How are you?"

Aang looked up at his wife, not being able to hear what was taking place in the room, "What's happening?"

"Sh," Katara remarked looking down at him sternly, though there was glass between them and the occupants of the room, she still didn't want her daughter to hear them in the alley, "Something's happening."

"What?!"

"Aang, sh!"

The Avatar hushed as he let out a strangled disgusted sound as a rather large bug crawled over the blue arrow tattoo on his hand. He would have airbended his wife up to the window, but he felt they were going to be here awhile and he knew despite that he was a master, he didn't have enough energy to hold her up for a long period of time. His back was beginning to ache a bit,  
but he could handle it.

Within the room, the man had answered that he was doing fine except for the cut along his arm. Kya walked over and began to gently unravel the banadage that was soaked in blood, her cerulean eyes increasingly sympathetic.

" Mr. Chang," The girl remarked gently as she took in his injury, the cut across the width of his arm, still warm with blood, "You need to be more careful."

The old man nodded solemnly, "I know," He looked up at Kya then, "But it was worth it. There was a gang of benders harassing a young child and I intervened. I was able to use my earthbending, but one of the men that was a waterbender ended up throwing an ice shard and I was only able to side step so far. It was a painful experience but the child was able to get away."

The young waterbender gave him a bright smile as she placed the jug of water on the floor, the glass clanking against the wooden flooring, "That was very noble of you to do, . I will have to tell my father of the gangs. Surely there is something that can be done."

The older man gave her a curious glance, "Is your father on the metalbending force? There weren't any around during my unfortunate accident."

Kya chuckled slightly at the thought of her tall, bald father in one of the heavy uniforms of a metalbender, "No, no he's not," The water then streamed from the jug and into the air between her hands where she formed it into an orb, "But he does hold an important role in the City."

Mr. Chang looked at the tanned girl who stood beside him, holding the water between the space of her palms, "He's not that man on the council from the Southern Water Tribe, is he?"

Kya couldn't help the giggle that bubbled up within her stomach at the man's assumption, "No, that's my Uncle you are speaking of," The water stretched onto the skin of her hands, encasing her nimble fingers in the liquid, "My father is the Avatar."

The man looked shocked for a moment before he smiled a bit in mirth, the wrinkles on his pale skin becoming more evident then, "I am quite honored that the daughter of the Avatar just so happened to be my healer. My family will probably never believe me."

The young healer smiled at this as she placed her warm hands, now glowing with a blue tint, on the injury that lined his arm. The man winced slightly before his face took on a relieved expression.

"I'm not here often," The girl murmured as she concentrated on the task at hand, carefully healing the man's arm, "I only take up the night shift about once every two weeks. I'm still being trained, but I can't let my healing hands go to waste so I put them to use."

Katara watched from the window, her eyes filling with tears as she heard her daughter's statement. One of the older woman's hair loopies flew into her face, a hand coming up to gently pushed it out of the way, the movement causing Aang to look up.

"Katara?"

"Yes?" She mumbled, eyes still staring on to the spectacle inside where her daughter was making friendly conversation with the injured man.

"Is something wrong?"

The master waterbender shook her head, looking down at her husband with tear filled blue eyes, "Aang," Her tone was soft and proud,  
"She isn't on a date."

He was relieved for a moment, "Oh, good!" The man then looked back at her from underneath the hood of the dark cloak, a dark brow raising curiously, "Than what's going on?"

Katara's tanned features were illuminated by the light coming from the window she stood by, Aang watching as a beautiful smile appeared on her face in place of the concerned frown that had been there earlier.

"She's a healer."

Aang nodded slowly, "We knew that though, you taught her."

His wife shook her head, eyes glancing back to the room where her daughter was bandaging the man's wound, the injury considerably smaller "No, I mean she's working as a healer."

The Avatar looked taken a back for a moment before a similar look of pride appeared on his features as well, "Well this is certainly better news than a boyfriend."

Katara nodded in agreement, though a troubling look darkened her features, "Aang, why do you think she didn't tell us?"

The man, still on his hands and knees, thought for a moment. Kya was doing absolutely nothing wrong on her trips to the city. They would have gladly given her permission to come and he was sure Katara would have offered to work beside her if she had known.

Suddenly, it all made sense though.

"Katara," Aang commented thoughtfully, drawing his wife's eyes back from the window to look directly down into his, "I think I know why she didn't tell us."

"Hm?" She looked at him expectantly.

Taking a deep breath, Aang continued, "I think what you said earlier about independence is spot on. You would have wanted to work with her if she had told us."

"She could have just told me she didn't want me to work with her."

Aang gave her a pointed look, "You and I both know that Kya would never tell anyone something like that. She wouldn't have wanted to hurt your feelings."

"But then why didn't she just tell you?"

Aang chuckled, turning his face from her's to look at the ground, "Because she knows that if you had become suspicious, I wouldn't have been able to keep my mouth shut when you asked me what was going on."

Katara pursed her lips, eyes glancing back into the room, "Perhaps you are right," A smile appeared on her features then as her daughter waved pleasantly to the man as he walked out of the door, her hands drawing the water from the jug and transforming it into dozens of silly shapes, "I'm just so proud of her! No wonder she sometimes comes to breakfast with her head nodding she's so tired, she's been helping out here."

Aang looked back and smiled at the pride on his wife's face, "She always did excel at healing."

Katara nodded, "And she always wanted to help people. I should have known she would become a healer."

Aang smiled softly, his back shaking as his wife still stood upon it, but he wasn't going to break this moment. His wife was so happy and he wouldn't take that away from her even if she snapped his spine in half.

"Hands where I can see them!"

Aang's eyes widened as Katara jumped from shock off his back, releasing a squeak as her feet hit the ground and her hands flew up. A squad of metaldbending police stood behind them on the sidewalk of the street right outside of the alleyway.

"You're partner too."

The Avatar shut his eyes tightly as he rose from the ground to his full height, putting his hands up peacefully in front of himself. The men in uniform giving him a suspicious glared as they realized he wore a dark cloak.

The man at the head of the group looked at the two pointedly, "We received a wire from a few residents reporting some mysterious behavior in this alley. The report said that two figures were leaning their heads into a health clinic."

Aang sighed deeply, "We were not doing anything wrong, officers."

"Yeah, well you can tell that to the chief."

The Avatar shared a nervous glance with his wife, "Uh, we would rather not do that."

At that moment, they heard the clanging of metal from down the walk. The metalbenders soon cleared to let the figure clothed in a uniform through to the criminals. The woman, with dark ebony hair tied tightly to her head in a bun, had a small smirk on her face, one foot planted firmly to the ground, "Oh, Twinkletoes and Sugar Queen. What are we going to do with the two of you?"

The men's eyes widened at the Avatar pulled the hood from his head, revealing his tattoos and sighing heavily, "Really, Toph? Nicknames?"

Katara rolled her eyes as well at her old friend's use of their childhood endearments, "I think we are a little too old for those."

"Says the two adults climbing on each other's back to look into a window, at what exactly?"

Kya, who had been watching curiously from the window of the health clinic as the metalbending force captured some fugitives, now opened her window, allowing the cool night air to breeze through the room, "Officers?" She questioned as the men looked up at her form in the window, "Is there something wrong?"

"And there is Baby Sugar Queen!"

The young healer's eyes met the police chief's blank stare, "Aunt Toph, what's going on?"

At that moment, she realized that the fugitives who were partially covered in shadows, both looked vaguely familiar.

"Mom? Dad?"

Her parents turned to see their daughter's suprised face, Aang raising a nervous hand to rub the back of his neck, husband and wife wearing near identical sheepish grins.

"Hi, Kya."

The girl opened her mouth as if to say something before she snapped it shut, arms crossing in frustration as she looked accusingly at her parents.

"You followed me?"

"You snuck off the island!"

"You traveled the world alone when you were twelve!"

"That was different!"

"Why?! Because I'm a girl?!"

Aang sighed in exasperation, already having had this conversation with his wife earlier in the night.

The two parents looked at each other, both knowing exactly what the other was thinking. They had come into the city ready to punish their daughter, when they were the ones in the end who were facing punishment instead.

It made a very interesting police report.


End file.
